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Monday, 7 March 2011

A very entertaining lecture indeed!

I went last night to see a real treat - the preview of Sandra and Susan Give a Lecture, the new show by Sandi Toksvig and Sue Perkins that they will be taking to the Hay-on-Wye Festival in May.

It was truly fabulous! The show's format is entirely interactive - based on the premise that the audience can choose a subject and the ladies will be able to construct a "lecture" out of the material they gather.

Starting with an elimination general knowledge quiz (all internet and phone access being banned), they began the intelligence-gathering with the "last woman standing" - who turned out to have a career that consisted of tweeting about pancakes and had an interest in insulation, so the comedy had already begun to write itself! - and played "pass the mike" with the public. The various audience members picked out by the mistresses of ceremony obliged by steering the eventual subject of the lecture down a meandering path towards "The History of Recycling", which they duly delivered in part two.

It was marvellous stuff, almost completely ad-libbed, and suited these two incredibly talented comediennes down to the ground.

The interaction, although potentially dangerous given the unpredictability of audiences in general, worked brilliantly. Everyone felt really involved in the dénouement (the "lecture"), and from the outset through to the general "question and answer" section at the end of the show Sue and Sandi seemed perfectly relaxed and at home with it all.